The present embodiments relate generally to a festoon system, such as one used during a process to form tire beads.
Many types of vehicular tires include beads surrounding the openings that engage the wheel rim. In general, beads comprise a wire coil in the nature of a hoop formed by winding multiple turns of a coated wire on a suitable bead forming apparatus. The bead may be made up of multiple, radially and axially arranged turns of a single wire or, in so-called weftless beads, of radially stacked layers of a flat ribbon including a plurality of side-by-side wires.
In any case, the single or multiple wires are pulled from one or more supply reels and passed through an extrusion die apparatus that applies a coating of rubber or rubberized material to the wire(s). The coated wire or ribbon is supplied to a conventional bead forming apparatus wherein one or more beads are wound to the desired dimensions and cross-sectional configuration.
In some systems, multiple sheaves or pulleys are provided between the coating operation and the bead forming apparatus to guide the wire and maintain tension upon the wire as conditions change. In general, the sheaves or pulleys are mounted upon respective axles for independent rotation. The multiple sheaves are mounted upon suitable support means, usually in vertically disposed relation, for relative movement toward and away from one another as the bead material is dispensed faster and slower, respectively, than it is accumulated. In some systems, an upper set of sheaves is fixedly supported at a position several meters above floor level and a lower set is vertically movable with respect thereto in order to ensure that proper tension is maintained during such movement. However, in other systems, the lower set of sheaves may be fixedly supported and the upper set of sheaves may be vertically movable.
Conventional systems may be relatively large, and placement within a facility may be challenging and dependent on space constraints, placement of other upstream or downstream equipment within a facility, and other factors.